The Ant and the Mandarin Reading Answers
The Ant and the Mandarin Reading Answers examine the fluency of reading passages of a candidate and the capability to answer questions of a candidate. The IELTS Reading test helps students in improving their skills which includes reading, understanding, accessing and analysing. In this IELTS Reading Section, the candidates will have to answer different questions with specific instructions related to them. The following IELTS reading piece The Ant and the Mandarin Reading Answers contains:
- Match with Current Event
- True or False
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
The Ant and the Mandarin Reading Answers
- In 1476, the farmers of Berne in Switzerland decided there was only one way to rid their fields of the cutworms attacking their crops. They took the pests to court. The worms were tried, found guilty and excommunicated by the archbishop. In China, farmers had a more practical approach to pest control. Rather than relying on divine intervention, they put their faith in frogs, ducks and ants. Frogs and ducks were encouraged to snap up the pests in the paddies and the occasional plague of locusts. But the notion of biological control began with an ant. More specifically, it started with the predatory yellow citrus ant Oeco-phylla smaragdina, which has been polishing off pests in the orange groves of southern China for at least 1,700 years. The yellow citrus ant is a type of weaver ant, which binds leaves and twigs with silk to form a neat, tent-like nest. In the beginning, farmers made do with the odd ants' nests here and there. But it wasn't long before growing demand led to the development of a thriving trade in nests and a new type of agriculture - ant farming.
- For an insect that bites, the yellow citrus ant is remarkably popular. Even by ant standards, Oecophylla smaragdina is a fearsome predator. It's big, runs fast and has a powerful nip - painful to humans but lethal to many of the insects that plague the orange groves of Guangdong and Guangxi in southern China. And for at least 17 centuries, Chinese orange growers have harnessed these six-legged killing machines to keep their fruit groves healthy and productive.
- Citrus fruits evolved in the Far East and the Chinese discovered the delights of their flesh early on. As the ancestral home of oranges, lemons and pomelos, China also has the greatest diversity of citrus pests. And the trees that produce the sweetest fruits, the mandarins - or kan - attract a host of plant-eating insects, from black ants and sap-sucking mealy bugs to leaf-devouring caterpillars. With so many enemies, fruit growers clearly had to have some way of protecting their orchards.
- The West did not discover the Chinese orange growers' secret weapon until 1 the early 20th century. At the time, Florida was suffering an epidemic of citrus canker and in 1915 Walter Swingle, a plant physiologist working for the US Department of Agriculture, was sent to China in search of varieties of oranges that were resistant to the disease. Swingle spent some time studying the citrus orchards around Guangzhou, and there he came across the story of the cultivated ant. These ants, he was told, were "grown'' by the people of a small village nearby who sold them to the orange growers by the nestful.
- The earliest report of citrus ants at work among the orange trees appeared in a book on tropical and subtropical botany written by Hsi Han in AD 304. "The people of Chiao-Chih sell in their markets ants in bags of rush matting. The nests are like silk. The bags are all attached to twigs and leaves which, with the i ants inside the nests, are for sale. The ants are reddish-yellow in colour, bigger than ordinary ants. In the south, if the kan trees do not have this kind of ant, the fruits will all be damaged by many harmful insects, and not a single fruit will be perfect."
- Initially, farmers relied on nests which they collected from the wild or bought in the market where trade in nests was brisk. "It is said that in the south orange trees which are free of ants will have wormy fruits. Therefore, people race to buy nests for their orange trees," wrote Liu Hsun in Strange Things Noted in the South in about 890.
- The business quickly became more sophisticated. From the 10th century, country people began to trap ants in artificial nests baited with fat. "Fruit-growing families buy these ants from vendors who make a business of collecting and selling such creatures," wrote Chuang Chi-Yu in 1130. "They trap them by filling hogs' or sheep's bladders with fat and placing them with the cavities open next to the ants' nests. They wait until the ants have migrated into the bladders and take them away. This is known as 'rearing orange ants'." Farmers attached k the bladders to their trees, and in time the ants spread to other trees and built new nests.
- By the 17th century, growers were building bamboo walkways between their trees to speed the colonisation of their orchards. The ants ran along these narrow bridges from one tree to another and established nests "by the hundreds of thousands”.
- Did it work? The orange growers clearly thought so. One authority, Chhii Ta-Chun, writing in 1700, stressed how important it was to keep the fruit trees free of insect pests, especially caterpillars. "It is essential to eliminate them so that the trees are not injured. But hand labour is not nearly as efficient as ant power..."
- Swingle was just as impressed. Yet despite his reports, many Western biologists were sceptical. In the West, the idea of using one insect to destroy another was new and highly controversial. The first breakthrough had come in 1888, when the infant orange industry in California had been saved from extinction by the Australian vedalia beetle. This beetle was the only thing that had made any in- T roads into the explosion of cottony cushion scale that was threatening to destroy the state's citrus crops. But, as Swingle now knew, California's "first'' was nothing of the sort. The Chinese had been experts in biocontrol for many centuries.
- The long tradition of ants in Chinese orchards only began to waver in the 1950s and 1960s with the introduction of powerful organic insecticides. Although most fruit growers switched to chemicals, a few hung onto their ants. Those who abandoned ants in favour of chemicals quickly became disillusioned. As costs soared and pests began to develop resistance to the chemicals, growers began to revive the old ant patrols in the late 1960s. They had good reason to have faith in their insect workforce.
- Research in the early 1960s showed that as long as there were enough ants in the trees, they did an excellent job of dispatching some pests - mainly the larger insects - and had modest success against others. Trees with yellow ants produced almost 20 percent more healthy leaves than those without. More recent trials have shown that these trees yield just as big a crop as those protected by expensive chemical sprays.
- One apparent drawback of using ants - and one of the main reasons for the early scepticism by Western scientists - was that citrus ants do nothing to control mealy bugs, waxy-coated scale insects which can do considerable damage to fruit trees. In fact, the ants protect mealy bugs in exchange for the sweet honey-dew they secrete. The orange growers always denied this was a problem but Western scientists thought they knew better.
- Research in the 1980s suggests that the growers were right all along. Where X mealy bugs proliferate under the ants' protection, they are usually heavily parasitised and this limits the harm they can do.
- Orange growers who rely on carnivorous ants rather than poisonous chemicals maintain a better balance of species in their orchards. While the ants deal with the bigger insect pests, other predatory species keep down the numbers of smaller pests such as scale insects and aphids. In the long run, ants do a lot less damage than chemicals - and they're certainly more effective than excommunication.
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Section 2
Solution and Explanation
Look at the following events (Questions 14-18) and the list of dates below.
Match each event with the correct time A-G.
Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
List of Dates
- 1888
- AD 890
- AD 304
- 1950s
- 1960s
- 1915
- 1130
- The first description of citrus ants is traded in the marketplace.
Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: The earliest report of citrus ants at work among the orange trees appeared in a book on tropical and subtropical botany written by Hsi Han in AD 304
Keyword: AD 304
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, 1st line
Explanation: The citrus ants were described in the book of Hsi Han in AD 304 for the first time.
- Swingle came to Asia for research.
Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: At the time, Florida was suffering an epidemic of citrus canker and in 1915 Walter Swingle, a plant physiologist working for the US Department of Agriculture, was sent to China in search of varieties of oranges that were resistant to the disease.
Keyword: 1915, Swingle
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, 2nd line
Explanation: While Florida was facing citrus cancer, Walter Swingle was sent to China to search for the varieties of orange resistant to the disease in 1915.
- The first record of one insect is used to tackle other insects in the western world.
Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: The first breakthrough had come in 1888, when the infant orange industry in California had been saved from extinction by the Australian vedalia beetle.
Keyword: 1888
Keyword Location: Paragraph 10, 4th line
Explanation: In 1888, the infant orange industry was saved by citrus ants from the Australian vedalia beetle for the first time.
- Chinese fruit growers started to use pesticides in place of citrus ants.
Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: The long tradition of ants in the Chinese orchards only began to waver in the 1950s and 1960s with the introduction of powerful organic insecticides.
Keyword: 1950s and 1960s
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, 1st line
Explanation: In the 1950s, the Chinese had begun using insecticides instead of ants and, by the 1960s, they returned to the same old method of ants.
- Some Chinese farmers returned to the traditional bio-method
Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: As costs soared and pests began to develop resistance to the chemicals, growers began to revive the old ant patrols in the late 1960s.
Keyword: 1960s
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, 4th line
Explanation: The costs of insecticides were rising, the pests were also turning resistant to the chemicals of the pesticides. By the late 1960s, the Chinese started switching back to ants.
Questions 19-26:
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 19-26 on your answer sheet write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
- China has more citrus pests than any other country in the world.
Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: China also has the greatest diversity of citrus pests
Keyword: Greatest diversity
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, 2nd line
Explanation: As mentioned in the passage, China has the widest diversity of citrus pests than any other country in the world.
- Swingle came to China to search for an insect to bring back to the US.
Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: in 1915 Walter Swingle, a plant physiologist working for the US Department of Agriculture, was sent to China in search of varieties of oranges that were resistant to the disease.
Keyword: Walter Swingle
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, 2nd line
Explanation: Swingle was sent to China to search for the varieties of orange that could cure citrus cancer affecting Florida.
- Many people were very impressed by Swingle's discovery.
Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: Yet despite his reports, many Western biologists were sceptical.
Keyword: biologists were sceptical
Keyword Location: Paragraph 10, 1st line
Explanation: The idea of using an insect was new to the Westside and the biologists there were, in fact, unimpressed and doubtful of Swingle's research.
- Chinese farmers found that pesticides became increasingly expensive.
Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: As costs soared and pests began to develop resistance to the chemicals, growers began to revive the old ant patrols in the late 1960s.
Keyword: costs soared
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, 4th line
Explanation: By the late 1960s, it was concluded by the Chinese farmers that pesticides were very costly and not that effective.
- Some Chinese farmers abandoned the use of pesticide
Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: Those who abandoned ants in favour of chemicals quickly became disillusioned.
Keyword: abandoned
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, 3rd line
Explanation: Due to the cost and ineffectiveness of pesticides, the Chinese farmers switched back to ants and abandoned the use of pesticides.
- Trees with ants had more leaves fall than those without
Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: The yellow citrus ant is a type of weaver ant, which binds leaves and twigs with silk to form a neat, tent-like nest.
Keyword: binds leaves
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, 9th line
Explanation: The yellow citrus ants helped in binding the twigs and leaves. There is no mention of any ants damaging the leaves.
- Fields using ants yield as large a crop as fields using chemical pesticides
Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: More recent trials have shown that these trees yield just as big a crop as those protected by expensive chemical sprays.
Keyword: as big a crop
Keyword Location: Paragraph 12, last line
Explanation: Research has proved that ants can yield a crop as big as a crop yield by pesticides.
- Citrus ants often cause considerable damage to the bio-environment of the orchards
Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: citrus ants do nothing to control mealy bugs, waxy-coated scale insects which can do considerable damage to fruit trees.
Keyword: citrus ants, control mealy bugs, damage
Keyword Location: Paragraphs 13, 1st line
Explanation: The citrus ants have proven to be more helpful to the bio-environment than damaging.
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